Georgia bishops issue call to protect immigrants

Published: 2006-03-14

ATLANTA (CNS) -- Whether their status is legal or not, immigrants "are the strangers for whom God seeks protection," said Georgia's Catholic bishops in a pastoral letter. Immigrants "are people with names and faces, hopes and fears," said Atlanta Archbishop Wilton D. Gregory and Savannah Bishop J. Kevin Boland in the letter, which was released March 1. Those who seek a better life through their own hard work and sacrifice should be treated with dignity and respect, with legislation that takes into account moral implications and human consequences, they said. Their letter decries immigration laws and policies that have become "increasingly restrictive and even harmful to some immigrants and those seeking asylum." The United States has always been made up of immigrants, "who bring with them richness in cultures and diversity from all areas of the world," they said. The country has consistently welcomed "immigrants, refugees and exiles fleeing injustice and oppression and seeking liberty and the opportunity to achieve a full life." Despite this, as the immigrant population has soared in the past 20 years, today's newcomers "often face rejection, hostility and discrimination in our communities and even within the church," they said.

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